Slashdot Mirror
War of Honor
War of Honor is the tenth full novel in David Weber's Honor Harrington series, and thirteenth book (there being three collections of stories set in the so-called "Honorverse"). For those of you that have read the earlier novels, this is more of the same, though Honor herself figures perhaps somewhat less prominently in it than in previous novels. It's got Weber's usual rich and detailed plot, along with Weber's occassionally turgid and expository writing.
One thing that makes this novel different from the others is that Weber has fully incorporated characters and plot lines from the short stories set in the "Honorverse" but penned by other authors. Earlier novels had made allusions to some of Weber's own short stories, but none had integrated another author's work to the extent that War of Honor does. Of course, this does nothing to simplify the plot or reduce the expository interludes (Weber includes enough explanation so that you can follow the plot without having read the prior short story). It does add to the flavor though, and helps keep Weber from simply retreading old ground.
Discussion of the plot, even aside from spoiler concerns, is well-nigh impossible. There's simply too much that happens. This isn't a book that could be a film - it's a mini-series, even without the prior nine novels. War of Honor is not a light and fluffy read. It's a good two hundred pages longer than the previous novel (Ashes of Victory) and doesn't have some of the breezy, happy passages of its predecessor. In fact, you might want to take a break halfway through - I did, with a complete novel in a much lighter vein (bad pun - it was an Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel). Suffice it to say that Weber knows how to write the next installment in a series: this one resolves enough threads to make it satisfying and opens enough new ones that readers will continue to scream for the next novel.
What Slashdotters are most familiar with, though, is the CD-ROM that's been discussed here before. And it's a nice one, to be sure. While the books on the CD themselves are available at Baen's Free Library, the CD contains more.
One of the most wonderful resources is the art gallery: the covers of the most recent editions of the Honor Harrington books as jpg images, all at 800x1200 pixel resolution or greater. Not scans of the covers but images of the original art, without the title graphics or anything else. I predict some very nice wallpapers coming soon to a site near you.
The CD-ROM also has other lovely tidbits, such as audio selections from several novels and MP3s of songs from the group Echo's Children. So even if you haven't caught this filk group at a sci-fi con, you still get their songs and lyrics based on events in the Harrington novels.
And all of this is on top of all the books on the CD-ROM. All ten Harrington novels, and yes, that includes War of Honor itself. All three collections of Harrington stories. And twenty five (not the previously-reported twenty two) other books, from the likes of David Drake, Eric Flint, Dave Freer, Mercedes Lackey, Keith Laumer, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, John Ringo, and James H. Schmitz. No encryption. No copy protection. In several formats each, including HTML, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, Rocket, and RTF files.
Put it all together in one no-download place and the CD-ROM is arguably worth the price of the hardcover book all by itself. Certainly, no new release CD-ROM sold by itself is going to sell for much less than US$26 (the cost of the book).
I'm of course reminded of Tim O'Reilly's (and many others) numerous comments to the effect that obscurity is a bigger problem for publishers than piracy. Jim Baen evidently agrees. He's just put the full text of a brand new flagship property (another bad pun, I'm sorry) in the clear. The disk even says you can copy it. Stamped right on the disk: "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold." Even the copyright notice says "All commercial rights reserved." Not "All rights reserved."
Given the popularity of the Honor Harrington series over all, it's just possible that this novel will make the NY Times (free reg, blah blah :-) best sellers list. And if it did, with its entire text freely and legally available on the net, wouldn't that be an interesting place for publishing to be?
You can purchase War of Honor from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Buy.com has it for $16.38 (shipping included). Wal-mart.com has it for $17.98. All are cheaper than bn.com $20.80. Spend the four dollar differential on something nice!
Ahh, the joys of capitalism.
Unfortunately the characters suffer in WoH. The bad guy Manties (and peep) are just too easy to hate. It's almost as it they wore big black moustaches, black cloaks,top hats and were tying young heiresses onto railway tracks.
Not one of the better ones.
It's a decent Sci-Fi series, with a such a good
following that other authors have done anthology
pieces.
What I find most interesting is that the main
character is the one who gets hurt most often.
Every other main character has gotten through the
series without permanent injury, whereas Honor is
currently down one eye and one arm.
The rest of the characters, even the minor ones,
are generally well developed, with distinct
personalities. Tho, I may be biased there, as I
am one of the minor characters. (The look on
Mom's face when she read my name was priceless.)
All in all, a decent series, well worth the read.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
I was trying so hard not to buy that book... Not that I don't like Weber's work... I like it a lot... but hard cover books here in canada cost an arm and a leg... /me goes looking for the saw, and someone willing to "donate" an arm and leg
I can't really picture reading a book off of a laptop or desktop and being comfortable. This is one case where a tablet pc might be nice to have. Although I see reading as a form of entertainment, and after I get home from staring at computers all day, I don't really want to look at any computer screens at unfortunately. I guess since I don't have the money (or the desire) to waste on a tablet, I'll just buy good old books for now
Personally, I'm baffled as to why anyone waits for a book they may want to come out in paperback. For something along the lines of a $25 hard cover book, the paperback version may be, at best, $15. You save a couple bucks but have to wait a long time until the initial hype and/or sales are done with before they start getting paperback versions out. I actually just go straight for the hard cover whenever I buy any book that is more than a hundred or so pages because it feels better when I'm reading it. There is some structure to the book, the pages don't get all messed up as easily, a good hard cover feels great to read by a fire or on some cold rainy day.
I've been using an ipaq to read ebooks lately. As the review said, the books are available in MS Reader, HTML and Palm formats. A backlit PDA is almost the perfect device to read ebooks. I've gotten so used to reading them on my ipaq that I prefer them to dead tree books.
Some of the material on the CD-ROM is available online at the Baen Free Library.
Agreed, I came away from the review not knowing what the book or series was actually about. As a potential new reader, it didn't sound interesting to me at all.
What was it? What genre, if any? Is Honor male or female? Is the writing/plot/characterization good?
Of course, I've garnered some of this from the posts following the review (and I might just check out this series). The review by itself, however, doesn't stand on it's own.
Ok, most people who enjoy Miles enjoy Honor. You see a lot of cross posting in the two forums on the Baen site. The plots of the Honor series are more focused on space battles, versus Miles's "Save the Damsel" idiom. I'll agree with most of the people here that the "batter is getting a bit thin" in this most recent book. But for $25 you get the entire series, plus books from other people, all on a CD - Rom. I'm taking a trip to England this year and am planning on putting the books into my Palm for the flight.
Honor Harrington is the hero of the series. The books revolve around her. She always wins over incredible odds. The series started as a Horitio Hornblower in space. The way the ships work was designed to create the same feel as tall ships and iron men. The space ships fight in giant broadside battles.
The series is fun, but as we move into the later stages of her career we are dealing more with the politics of the world and larger forces are coming into play. This means that the books are moving away from the space battles and into the political battles, much as Miles moved from being an Admrial into being a Auditor. The Miles stories are all at a very personal level. We are very into his point of view and the problems he confronts are all his issues to solve. The later books of the Honor series bounce from view point to view point and the problems she faces are all larger than the battle in front of her. I like Lois MacMaster Bujold's approach to the characters better. I have more fun with it. David Weber's characters are more "stock" in this series and the action is more the point of the story. Both are action packed, but in different ways. It would be fun to see a Lois short story in the Honorverse, and vice versa.
Price discrimination. Lets say you have 10,000 people who are hardcore fans of the series or author, or just prefer hardcover books, and are willing to pay $25 for a copy. You also have 90,000 casual readers who don't think that the book would be worth $25, but would pay $15 for a hardcover book. So what do you do?
1. Print the book in hardcover only. You will have 10,000 readers * $25/book = $250,000.
2. Print the book as a paperback. You will have 100,000 readers * $15/book = $1,500,000.
3. Print the book in both hardcover and paperback. You will have $250,000 from the hardcover sales, and 90,000 readers * 15/book = $1,350,000. Your total revenue is $1,600,000. You just made an extra hundred grand.
With price discrimination, each group of consumers is able to pay what they want, so the publisher can earn extra revenue by allowing consumers that are willing to pay a higher price to do so. Similar principles are at work in airfare pricing (first class and coach), coupon clipping, and discount cinemas/matinees.
For those so inclined, here's a general synopsis of the plot (the series not just this book, but the CD includes the whole series, anyway).
Honor Harrington is a (space) naval officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. She starts as a captain, later she's an admiral. The situation is a space-age re-writing of European history during the age of classic (water) naval battles. For the guy who mentioned Horatio Hornblower, you hit the nail on the head. Honor proves her own strategic brilliance, courage, honor(pun definitely intended by the original author), loyalty and sense of duty, mostly against overwhleming odds and underskilled opponents. A few skillful opponents are thrown in for proof that she's not just lucky.
Mixed into this action premise is a truly glorious back story of political intrigue and class conflict. The entire series can be taken as a diatribe against the policies of a welfare state if you want, but it's well concealed, and, in general, well thought out. Throw in a healthy spatter of the harsh realities of war and treachery, and mix well.
I had actually thought of doing a review of this novel myself, but I'm glad I was beaten to it. As the author says, the book is worth it, even if only for the CD. I'll add that as a political statement, buying this book/CD combination to try to encourage it in future publications is also worht it, even if you never read a word. But you'll be missing out if you don't.
Do not confuse duty with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different.Duty is a debt you owe to yourself.
Because I am a fan of the series, and because I think what author Weber and publisher Baen have done with the CD-ROM thingie is both courageous and spiffy, lemme try and save y'all some Googlin'...
As has been noted, The Honor Harrington Series is Space Opera, Military Science Fiction. What David Drake did for future tank crewman with his Hammer's Slammers books, Weber does for their space-navy counterparts. There is no "Earth" and no "Aliens," just some far-flung planetary empires, each with different politics (monarchy, socialism, feudalism, whatever) all on planetary scales.
Honor Harrington is an Ayn Rand Romantic Heroine from the Old School. She fights classism, fleet politics, bigotry, duels, and Big Honkin' Enemy Fleets with equal tirelessness and aplomb. She loses friends, limbs, eyes, commands, and keeps coming back for more, plasma cannons a-blazing.
The series has traced her career, from just-out-of-academy first command to whatever she is now, Lord Admiral of the Friggin' Universal Royal Fleet, or somesuch. (Personally, I liked her better when she was "coming up through the ranks," but hey...)
From a geek perspective, the series is notable for its rather detailed thinking-out of space navy mechanics. As someone here has said, Weber is Master of the Space Battle, not necessarily because they are any more exciting than your average Tie-fighter sequence, but because the detail in the physics and the navy crewmen operations seem exceptionally plausible.
If your idea of a good read is the latest Chicano-Lesbian-Prison-Drama from some Lower East Side playwright, move along, there's nothing to see here. If your idea of SF is a barrier-breaking, genre-bending, quantum-cyber-dystopic Enduring-Parable-For-Our-Time, ditto.
If, on the other hand, you enjoy a good read, with interesting, likable characters for whom you can really cheer, and an approach to space-battles that will have you running for your calculator and some graph paper, the Honor Harrington books are da bomb.
Horatio Hornblower, even as an Admiral, is constantly faced with his deficiencies (he has little physical courage, he is unsociable and he can't hear music). Consider this excerpt from "Lord Hornblower", where he has to kill or capture a brig's crew, who have mutinied because their (literally) sadistic captain had them whipped daily:
Our other H. H., in contrast, is a likeable enough character. But she is perfect, she's a mix of Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth (of Armada fame) and the girl that the guy who did the Nike of Samothrake probably had wet dreams about. Let's see her in action:
And that's her as a midshipwoman, age 18. But hey, buy the books anyway, they're damn good military SF, and I really, really apreciate the good physics.
Shelf space is another real advantage of paperback books for fiction - they take about half as much space as hardbacks or big paperback computer books. If you read a lot, this can be an important constraint, unless you also dispose of books after reading them.
Besides, how much of a hurry are you in? There are *lots* of books out there to read. For most science fiction, my usual tradeoff is used vs. new, though I have the advantage of living near bookstores with large collections of used science fiction. There are a few authors I'll buy new the minute they hit the store (Steven Brust, Neil Stephenson, and this gradually became the case for the Honor Harrington series, though not for Weber's other books), but I'm very seldom in enough of a hurry to read a specific book that I'll buy non-remaindered hardbacks - the three I see on my shelves are Steven Brust's "Dragon", Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky", and of course Cryptonomicon (but as a Cypherpunk, that was an obvious must-buy.) The 25th century and the quasi-Middle-Ages can wait an extra six months.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks